Brightspace allows you to create a course structure in the Content menu. In Content you can organize your course through creating, editing, and structuring several (sub)modules and by putting said modules in an order that is logical for your course. These modules can be filled with all your course materials like the syllabus, media files, documents or links to external web pages or Activities within Brightspace like Discussions or Quizzes. This way you can create a clear and easy to navigate course that will help students to quickly familiarize themselves with the course.
- Click Content in the nav bar of your course. You will now land on the Overview page.
- f you want to start by learning more about the Content environment, please start with: What can I do under Content?
Content: determine the course layout
Your course is presented using a table of contents format: an ordered list of units and associated course content. For example, you can create a unit as below for each course week (for example: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, etc.), per theme (for example: Introductie, Logisch-Empirisme, Falsificationisme, Paradigma's et cetera), per professional task (intake interview , bad news, etc.) or by type of content (sources, assignments, discussions, tests, etc., see next image)
In the overview you can see all units below each other. This allows students to have a total view of the course content and at the same time see how the course is structured.
Per unit (1) the students are able to see the sublevels called Lesson in Brightspace (2), the folders (3) that are created beneath these lessons, and the course items that might be linked to all three levels (like pdf-files or weblinks):
It is possible to create several submodules within a module. These submodules allow you to further organize your course by, for instance, placing related topics in one submodule. You can find these submodules in the table of contents by clicking on the module you placed them in. The picture above shows you that the module Collegeweek 2 contains three different submodules: Lezen en Doen, Alleen lezen/luisteren and Voorbereiding Collegeweek 3. You can subsequently place teaching materials, like mandatory literature or a link to a specific activity (e.g.: a quiz or an assignment) in the submodule.
Adding submodules can be an easy way to organize topics within a submodule, but adding too many submodules or too many layers of submodules can impact the overall readability of the course in a negative way. If the topics are spread too thin between too many submodules, students can experience some difficulties with finding the correct topic.
Create units and courses
- Click on the left top of the table of contents on + New unit.
A new window opens:
- Name the unit.
- Add a description of the unit. Also add (if wanted) an image. This information can be seen at the homepage of your course.
- Click Add Due Date if a deadline is linked to the unit.
- Click Available Dates if you want to set a limit till when the unit is visible. You can add a start- and enddate.
- A newly created unit is always Hidden: the course content is not visible for students. Only after ticking the box, the unit will become visible for students. Click on the eye icon.
Information you add to your unit description will appear on your course home page for students. When you insert an image, the tile of the unit will get this image. If you choose a picture that fits the theme of the unit, this provides clarification for students. Text also offers clarity on the start page: the first few lines of the description of the unit return under the i icon.
Note that when you put a unit on visible, the content beneath the unit won't automatically change as well. These are two steps: putting the content on visible and making the unit visible.
Add new courses to a unit
- Click Add Existing/Create New to add files and activities to a module.
- Click Create New and then on New Lesson if you want to create one or multiple sublevels in this unit, and follow the steps (which are the same as at creating a unit).
Read more about filling your (sub)modules with files, documents, audio files and videofiles in the articles below:
- How do I create a HTML-file in my course?
- How do I add documents to a course?
- How do I add audio or video to my course?
Read more about adding existing activities in the articles below:
Edit a unit
- Click in Content on the unit or the course you want to edit.
- Click the three dots behind the name, and then:
- Edit to change the name, add dates and edit the description
- View release conditions to view the linked release conditions and to add new ones.
- Reorder to move a unit or course
- Delete to delete a unit.
You can also move a unit/lesson by placing your cursor on the dots to the left of the name of the unit in the table of contents on the left, holding it for a long time and dragging it to the desired position.
Give structure to units and courses
Units form the structure of your course. You can vary for example per theme, per task, or per information in the unit: